Still elsewhere in the forest, serenity reigned as a female squirrel hopped from branch to branch, carrying a mouthful of nuts to one of her many storages. She paused a moment on one of the branches and perked up her ears; she'd heard something coming, much larger than she was.
Cautious, like most of her species, the squirrel crouched down near the start of the branch and waited patiently for whatever had interrupted her to pass by. She shuffled to the side slightly to hide in shadows, rather than the rare shaft of sunlight that filtered through the trees nearby.
The source of the noise that sent the squirrel into hiding came slowly nearer, accompanied by the soft thud of what seemed to be a smaller third leg whatever it was had, but used only occasionally. The squirrel watched carefully as he came into sight; a somewhat short elf - or was it half-elf? - young man, wearing a small, plain brown cap, apparently fur of some kind, rather baggy green pants with easily a dozen seperate fair-sized pockets, and a padded red vest. He carried only a long, straight, undecorated, apparently wooden staff of sorts, that he was currently using as a walking stick.
The elven stranger stopped below the tree the squirrel was hiding in, and raised one hand to help shield his eyes as he looked up through the shaft of sunlight peeking through the treetops. The female squirrel glanced down at him in curiosity, and immediately lost all sense of reality, getting caught up in his small, sincere smile, gorgeous green eyes, the way the two ponytails peeking out of the back of his cap swayed in the wind (spontaneously filled with the petals of cherry blossoms), how handsome he looked surrounded by those shiny little bubbles around him, how-
The squirrel's thoughts were thoroughly interruped by small brown blur charging out of the elf's headwear, screeching loudly and attacking the bubbles that had surrounded its origin. The squirrel yelped and ran off in the treetops, leaving the brown blur causing loud popping noises by destroying the bubbles.
The blur stopped after the last of the bubbles popped, dropping a small quantity of water onto the already-muddy ground. It seemed to be a small brown creature, twitching invoulantarily as it tried to calm down.
"Must... kill... shoujo... bubbles..." it said.
"Oh, hello, Iyachu!" the unnamed elf(?) replied, turning away from the sunlight to look at his apparent companion.
Iyachu kept still, snarling quietly, for a moment more, then seemed to regain its composure and sit up to face the elf(?). "Yeah, yeah, same to you, Nokato." It glanced around for a moment, then continued, "Why the heck are you wasting time here?"
"I'm just enjoying the calm of the forest, little hamster." Nokato replied, still with his characteristic smile.
"Iyachu," the rodent replied, almost automatically, then asked, "Do you actually remember why we agreed to come here?"
"Because the forest is beautiful!" Nokato replied promptly, striking a cheerful pose.
A vein on Iyachu's forehead throbbed as he replied, "No, we're here to defeat a monster so we can get a cash reward! We need it 'cause you've been living on my nut hoards for the past week!"
Nokato frowned slightly at this and said, "That reminds me. I'm hungry. I wonder if there's something in my pocket..."
Nokato followed this up by digging around in one of the many pockets on his outfit, bringing up a handful of walnuts. He smiled and began snacking on them.
Iyachu stared at this for a moment, crying silently. "My... my walnuts..." he stammered, tears streaming from his eyes. He then jumped onto Nokato's face (unnoticed) and began yelling at him.
"Don't eat my walnuts unless I tell you you have permission!! Those are MY hoards! Leave them alone! HEY! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!"
Nokato paused for a moment, a walnut halfway to his mouth, and crossed his eyes to look at Iyachu, who was currently hanging onto his nose, glaring at the elven glutton.
"Iyachu!" he said cheerfully, as he absent-mindedly put the rest of the walnuts back into one of his pockets, "When did you get here?"
A loud thud accompanied the rodent's forceful fall back to the ground.
"Hamster-chan?" Nokato continued.
"I give up..." Iyachu muttered, slowly standing back up before scurrying back to his apparent home in Nokato's hat.
Nokato sat still as his pet (one might assume) returned to its hiding place of choice, then smiled. "Iyachu's having a friend over!" he said, then fiddled with his weapon, "I'll play some music for them to listen to!"
Nokato's hat seemed to sweatdrop as he carefully took his weapon apart at the middle, revealing a hollow inside, where a flute was hidden. Nokato took the flute in one hand, storing the two halves of his weapon in a pair of designated holders for them on his back, and played a few notes to warm up.
" Final Fantasy is an RPG..." he sang.
"Where the hell do you get those lyrics?" Iyachu asked.
"They just come to me, mister talking hat." Nokato replied, smiling, before starting to play his flute.
Said hat seemed to sweatdrop.
(OOC notes - Nokato is INSANELY charismatic. Anyone who can actively hate him would have to be colder than cold, or at least really, really intolerant of idiots. Because that's his biggest disadvantage. Iyachu's smarter, but shy and rarely gets respected {more of a jinx than 'in most circumstances'}. He also goes berzerk at the sight of shoujo bubbles, as seen earlier. Also, since it isn't very clear here, Nokato is HALF elf.
... yeah. That a long enough introductory post, people?)